Contest Seeks Names For New Water Bottle Filling Stations

What
is silver, mounted on a wall, and dispenses cold, filtered water into reusable
bottles?

The
answer: newly installed campus water bottle filling stations!

To
promote water sustainability and to reduce the number of plastic water bottles going
into landfills, Facilities Management has initiated a pilot project that will install
water bottle refill stations in classroom buildings across campus.

There
are two pilot locations: one in Science and Research 1 and the second on the first
floor of Cullen Engineering D-3, with plans to expand the program to approximately
40 additional facilities.

The
water bottle filling stations will replace the standard water fountains and will
add the benefits of incorporating a second water filter to the water supply as
well as a station use counter. This counter will track how many times the
filling station is used, which will give an indication of how many water
bottles are not being tossed into the trash.

After
being installed two weeks ago, the filling station counters indicate that 2,174
fills have occurred. Spread out over the course of a year at the present rate, just
these two locations alone could account for an estimated 56,524 water bottles
being saved from the landfill. Plans for the continuation and expansion of this
program are being developed within Facilities Management, including mapping the
locations, type of units to be installed, and material and labor costs.

Now
that the pilot program has been launched, Facilities Management would like to
ask for help in naming these filling stations. The naming competition is open
to all students, faculty and staff. The selected name will be publicized with a
sign above each of the water filling stations. The sign shown in the photo over
the water filling station is a representation only of what the sign will look
like. The person who submits the winning name will receive a gift card in
addition to knowing they have helped further sustainability efforts on campus. The deadline to submit a name is Friday, April 19
and there is no limit to the number of different names that can be submitted by
any one individual.

The
winner will be notified and the new name will be announced in a campus news
release. To submit a name for the competition, send an email to James Ballowe,
jballowe@central.UH.EDU, Subject Line: NAME CONTEST – WATER BOTTLE FILLING
STATION.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston is a comprehensive
national research institution serving the globally competitive Houston and Gulf
Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and
strategic industry partnerships. UH serves more than 40,700 students in
the nation’s fourth-largest city, located in the most ethnically and culturally
diverse region of the country.